Surgery Update

We are thrilled to say that we are home and everything went wonderfully!

• We didn't hit rush hour traffic on the way to the hospital.
• Ezra fell asleep during pre-op so he wasn't screaming from hunger pains even though surgery was delayed about 45 minutes.
• The hospital staff was amazing!
• Surgery took WAY longer than we thought it would, but they were able to keep the facial nerve completely intact! His surgeon said it was quite a mess in there.
• The incision is shorter than I anticipated it would be.
• Within hours after surgery, Ezra was a happy guy!
• We realized how truly blessed we were after seeing other families dealing with much more challenging issues.
• Ezra had very little pain after surgery. We didn't even have to get a prescription for pain meds when we left the hospital.
• They were able to remove his drainage tube before we left so we don't have to deal with it at home or make an extra trip back to the hospital this week to have it removed.
• So far, he doesn't rub or scratch at the incision so we don't have to keep the splints on his arms.

Here's a post-op picture...Steri-strips, left over marking pen, some swelling and a little bruising

Happy reading a book with Daddy and Ashton

Crawling all over the house with his little smirk! You can barely tell anything was done from this angle.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers for Ezra, our family and the doctors. We felt them all - especially during the extra 90 minutes of surgery when we were anxiously waiting to hear from the doctor. Keep praying that the rest of recovery goes just as well!

If you have more questions about our experience with Atypical Mycobacterium, please leave a comment or email me at thoner02k @ yahoo . com. You can read all my posts related to this here.

~Anika

Atypical Mycobacterial Infection

Our little Ezra is way to cool for your run-of-the-mill ear infection or any other kind of typical childhood illness! Somehow, he managed to contract an Atypical Mycobacterial Infection. What's that?? Well, it's something you get from drinking unpasteurized milk (which Ezra hasn't) or from eating bird poop!! The infection has an incubation period, so that means he contracted it when he was 3-4 months old...not sure how he managed to get into bird poop at that age!

See the red lump on his jaw line? It just started turning red last week (which is the normal course of the infection) and it doesn't bother him at all; he doesn't poke at it and it doesn't hurt him when we touch it.

This is the short version of how we figured out what he had...

On November 28th, I noticed a lump on his jaw line and instantly freaked out. Lump=Cancer in my brain! The next morning I called to make an appointment with his pediatrician. Unfortunately, he wasn't in that day so we had to see a different doctor...I won't go into the details, but that was a BIG mistake!

After 3 weeks of appointments including an ultrasound, blood work, seeing a pediatric ENT, a CT Scan, a Fine Needle Biopsy, a TB skin test, and a chest x-ray, we FINALLY had our diagnosis. An Atypical Mycobacterial Infection. It requires surgery, but it is NOT life threatening and that was a huge answer to prayers.

We are lucky enough to live within an hour of several amazing Children's Hospitals and the one Ezra will have surgery at is brand spankin' new! His doctor/surgeon is awesome, and we are confident that he will do a fantastic job. The main risk to the surgery is damage to the facial nerve that runs along the jaw line. Ezra's doctor has never damaged the nerve, though! Surgery is in a week. Any prayers that you could say for a successful surgery and smooth recovery would be greatly appreciated! I will update you all as soon as possible after surgery.

If you have more questions about our experience with Atypical Mycobacterium, please leave a comment or email me at thoner02k @ yahoo . com. You can read all my posts related to this here.

Thanks a bunch!

~Anika